May 13, 2009

WordPress spell-checker not up to par

After publishing my review of Zoe Strauss’s book America on The Photo Book, I sent Zoe a follow up email letting her know that it was published and if there were any factual changes needed. To my surprise, besides liking the review, she indicated that there were some spelling errors in the article. Huh?

I had run the WordPress spell-check probably three times as I was completing the article and once after I had completed the article, especially when there was one word that I was not so sure about. But WordPress spell-check indicated no problems amigo. So I asked Zoe what specifically were the misspelled words. Yikes, the words she indicated that were misspelled were actually misspelled. But even when I put the cursor right in front of my misspelled word and ran the WordPress spell-check, still no indication that it was wrong. sigh.

So when I have a hunch that I don’t have the word spelled right, even after running the spell-check, it appears that I better haul out the trusty dictionary and double check.

Pete, I had to laugh about the disappearing dictionaries. I was at a clients and needed to double check a word with a dictionary, and it took me almost a half hour to find one. Most of the secretaries and assistants did not have one.